Monday, 21 January

15:50

RISE: Refugees, Survivors and eX-detainees the FIRST
self-determined advocacy and welfare organisation in Australia run
by Refugees for Refugees makes a public call for a boycott of
Australia Day, for the seventh year in a row.

We eX-detainees, Asylum Seekers and Refugees from RISE condemn
any group or individual who claims to be pro-refugee but celebrates
Australia Day on the 26th of January 2019. Instead, RISE encourages
all Refugees, eX-detainees, Asylum Seekers and allies to support
First Nations peoples in their actions against Australia Day.

RISE represents over 30 refugee community groups in Australia
and is the first (and one of the few) self-determined, registered,
non-profit refugee organisations in Australia governed and managed
by eX-detainees, Asylum Seekers and Refugees. As eX-detainees,
Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Australia, we acknowledge that the
land we seek protection on is the land of Aboriginal and Torres
Strait Islander Peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded. Always
was, always will be Aboriginal land.

We believe the systemic abuse of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples is a result of over 200 years of discrimination as
part of the white colonial genocide strategy that continues to this
day and this template is now being used against our own refugee
communities. How can we dismantle the white Australian governments
refugee torture camps built within and outside its colonial borders
without addressing the root cause of this criminal abuse?

RISE fully supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples sovereignty and self-determination and stands in solidarity
with them every day in our commitment to fighting for justice on
this land on their terms.

Nationwide actions are being organised by Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Activists. Below are the list of actions
happening around Australia:

11:51

By Ugur Nedim and Zeb Holmes A former police worker has been
sentenced to a minimum of two years behind bars after she pleaded
guilty to falsely accusing her ex-partner of sexual assault.
28-year old Sarah-Jane Parkinson entered pleas in November last
year to two counts of making a false accusation to police and
two

11:40

National Rugby League (NRL) player Paul Carter has strenuously
denied allegations that he leaked intimate images of former Sydney
Roosters teammate Dylan Napa as part of an extortion campaign. It
has been reported that Mr Napa and his lawyers met with the NRL
Integrity Unit to discuss information that Carter received threats
by way of

10:13

In case youve missed any of them, heres a rundown of the past
weeks articles: Renewed Calls for Wage Theft to be Criminalised
Revelations that the ABC underpaid up to 2,500 casual staff over 6
years has led to fresh calls for wage theft to be criminalised.
Click here to read the article Man Acquitted

08:50

Hundreds of immigration detainees in detention centres across
the country have begun a hunger strike protest this morning, Monday
21 January.

Detainees in the Villawood, Brisbane Immigration Transit
Accommodation (BITA) and Melbourne Immigration Transit
Accommodation (MITA) detention centres began their protest this
morning, joining the detainees at Yongah Hill in Western Australia
who are into the eighth day of protest.

The national protest comes as more video footage from MITA
revealing brutality and intimidation at the hands of Serco
guards.

The unaccountable use of force, arbitrary punishment, and the
use of handcuffs (detainees are even handcuffed to hospital beds)
rank among the major concerns of the detainees alongside the
deliberate placement of detainees away from their families and the
indefinite detention powers of the Minister to over-ride court and
Tribunal appeal decisions.

An independent review of immigration detention is urgently
necessary. The Minister of Home Affairs and the Minister for
Immigration preside over a system within a system without checks
and balances. Natural justice is suspended behind the fences of the
detention centres; Ministers and guards are a law unto themselves,
said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition.

There is no justification for holding these people in detention.
It is a product of mandatory detention and draconian powers handed
to the Minister to cancel visas. People are being held in detention
for periods longer than the sentence imposed on them by the
courts.

10:44

1803 - Seems Charlie Grimes popped into Port Phillip (which wasn't
Port Phillip at the time but probably labouring under its own
moniker now long lost in the mists of time), cast his pithy baby
blues over the Mornington Peninsula and declared, "I am soooo not
redecorating this place!" before tattling to Gov King how he just
didn't do sandy soil for settlements.
The lack of fresh water may have had some bearing on it, too.
Best not let on to the swarms of tourists and residents of the
Mornington Peninsula that its unsuitable for settlement!

1803 - Louis Freycinet, in his ship Casuarina, sailing up the
larger of South Australia's two gulfs, was in the vicinity of what
is now called Moonta Bay.

1841 - Jorgen Jorgensen, The Convict King and claimant to the
throne of Denmark and Iceland, popped his clogs, as all men do, in
Hobart.

1842 - Tunnerminnerwait was Hanged at Melbourne for the murder of
two whalers at Cape Paterson.
1842 - Maulboyheenner was Hanged at Melbourne for the murder of two
whalers at Cape Paterson.
Tunnerminnerwait and Maulboyheenner were the first people to be
hanged by the Government in the District of Port Phillip and were
buried in an unmarked grave on the site of the now Queen Victoria
Market, where there have been numerous reports of sightings of
their ghosts.

1849 - The good ship...no,not Lollipop but Fortitude parked in
Lower Level 2 space 3a at Morton Bay QLD with its cargo of 245
immigrants from Britain for Rev John Dunmore Lang's Cooksland
cotton growing scheme. Its temporary headquarters were set up at
Fortitude Valley, named after the ship which brought them
there.

1854 - Fire destroyed a city block in Hobart, Tas.

1858 - The Wesleyan Chapel in Lydiard St , Ballarat, opened for
business.

1863 - James Whyte replaced T.D. Champman as Premier of
Tasmania.

1869 - Frederick Alexander, inventor of the Alexander
Technique which takes too long to explain here in 25 words or less,
was hatched in Tassie.

1880 - Andrew George Scott, better known as bushranger Captain
Moonlite, was hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol.

1880 - Thomas Rogan (Bushranger) A member of the Moonlite Gang, was
hanged at Darlinghurst Gaol for the murder of Constable Webb-Bowen
at Wantabadgery.

09:24

Ive had an epiphany, and its making me uncomfortable. At 53, Ive
reached peak stuff. And my backup plan for downsizing donating it
to charities has hit a hurdle. They dont want most of my stuff. It
all started with our holiday viewing of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo
on Netflix. The show []

Human rights groups have
called on the Papua Police to immediately and
unconditionally drop the rebellion charge against three
activists from the West Papua National Committee
(KNPB) and release them.

Amnesty International and Yayasan
Pusaka issued a recent statement saying that the activists
"were prisoners of conscience" who had not employed
violence or hatred, and were imprisoned solely for expressing their
political views in a peaceful manner.

The Indonesian authorities have
used Article 106 of Indonesias Criminal Code, along with Article
110, to criminalize dozens of peaceful pro-independence political
activists with the charge of rebellion in the last
decade, said&nbs...

07:58

The pond should start off by noting that it hasn't
taken long for the reptiles to get back into peak form, rather like
the Australian cricket team it's never too early in the year to get
the fear-mongering into gear, what with an election just around the
corner ...

A SPECIAL INVESTIGATION?
Wouldn't it be simpler to run a story, WHATEVER
YOU DO, DON"T VOTE FOR COMRADE BILL, THE SKY WILL FALL
DOWN

And as sure as there's a heatwave, the reptiles
will just as surely wheel out Bjorn, full of bland
reassurance

There were other sightings too, the dog botherer
was out and about and Helen of Dale was given a spot, but here's
the thing

The pond has decided it wants a dollar each time that 'leets are
mentioned, and two dollars when said perfidious 'leets cop a
caning, in a rag flung together in the heart of Sydney town

There was the dog botherer railing at the 'leets at
the end of his piece

01:29

The Weekly Times - TWT - is a campaigning, crusading,
truth-seeking, death defying, Aussie battler-aligned,
one-eyed-Tiger-led news organisation dedicated to Sydney's north
west. This flip book - or digital edition/replica - is the 16th
January 2019 edition of TWT. #TWT160119

16:14

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) released
an interim decision last year that would see amyl nitrite and
other alkyl nitrite inhalants banned. This means these substances
popularly referred to as poppers would be moved into schedule 9 of
the Poisons Standard along with drugs like heroin. The use of
nitrite inhalants is popular amongst gay and bisexual

15:00

The Law Enforcement Conduct Commission announced at the end
of October that it was launching an investigation into the use of
strip searches by NSW police. The inquiry is in response to growing
allegations that officers are abusing their powers. This was
against a backdrop of a growing awareness that strip search use is
increasing in

14:43

At the start of every year, new state and federal laws come into
effect across the nation. This year, babies, students, migrants,
politicians and credit card users are amongst those most affected
by laws which came into effect earlier this month. Heres a quick
rundown of the new laws. Foreign political donations New laws
have

14:00

Last year, 69 women were killed violently across Australia.
This brings the murdered women death toll in this country since
2012 to 506, according to Counting the Dead Women Australia
project researchers from gender equality group Destroy the
Joint. And in the overwhelming majority of these cases, the
perpetrators were men who were known to their victims. The

12:01

If it's one thing that gets our stomachs excited it is the
thought of a restaurant hiding up a flight of stairs and serving up
Thai food unlike most places in Sydney. Chaao Thai Siam ticks all
those shiny, happy boxes. Walking through a Thai sweets shop,
narrow and stacked high with plastic tubs of mango sticky rice and
fire laden Thai dips, could be enough to get us excited.
Heading

11:46

Around 350 immigration detainees are into their fifth day of
hunger strike protest at Yongah Hill detention centre.

A list of demands was released by the Yongah Hill protesters on
Monday, 14 January (see below).

The detainees will hold a protest in the yard of Hawke and
Falcon compounds at 11.30am Perth time. The protesters have asked
the media to come to Yongah Hill to see the protest and talk to the
detainees themselves.

We want to show the media that Border Force is lying when they
say there is no protest at Yongah Hill. We have been asking Border
Force why we have been detained so long; what is happening to our
cases, but they have no answers, one detainee told the Refugee
Action Coalition.

A room search conducted this morning at 7.00am Perth time was
just another way to try and intimidate the protesters.

The hunger strike protests last week at the MITA North and now
at Yongah Hill have exposed the conditions inside the onshore
detention system, and the routine abuses arbitrary arrest and
punishment, use of handcuffs, lockdowns, assault that detainees are
exposed to.

The government has tried to maintain a wall of silence around
the onshore regime. There is no independent oversight of onshore
immigration detention. Border Force and Serco guards act with
impunity, said Ian Rintoul , spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition.

There are fundamental injustices associated with the use of
immigration detention and Ministerial power that have to be
addressed. Ministerial power to over-ride court decisions are a
denial of natural justice and would not be acceptable in the
criminal justice system. Border Force and the Minister are laws
unto themselves.

10:39

Real estate cycle expert Bryan Kavanagh says turnover and price
declines in Sydney and Melbourne during 2018 indicate an economic
recession in the 2019-20 financial year. The 2018 Kavanagh-Putland
Index, released today, shows the total value of Australian real
estate sales to GDP. Mr Kavanagh said the $50 billion pumped into
markets by the Rudd-Swan []

17:06

By Ugur Nedim and Sonia Hickey Sydney lawyer Brody Clarke came
from a privileged background, benefited from a stellar education
and was employed by investment banks Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan
before turning his hand to law in his early thirties. But it all
came undone when the now 36-year old engaged in
an unsophisticated scheme

10:39

By Paul Gregoire and Ugur Nedim High Court Justice Virginia Bell
ended 2018 on an incendiary note, when she publicly implied that
some sentences being handed down are clearly too light, and the
Crown should be appealing them rather than exercising the restraint
that has been applied over recent decades. The comments were made
during

08:31

The saga of
Opal Tower, the 36-storey Sydney apartment building evacuated
on Christmas Eve after frightening cracking, has helped to expose
the deep cracks in Australias approach to building apartments.

The big lesson from Opal Tower is that badly built apartments
arent only an issue for residents

Wednesday, 16 January

13:44

Its always such an insight into cities when you go to small
coastal places no matter where you are in the world. On Australias
mid- north coast around Stuarts Point and Grassy Head where the
Macleay River branches out into salt water lakes and the beaches
are endless. Which is true of much the coastline as well.

Stuarts Point is a stand out as the old beach/holiday houses are
so intact and there are so many wonderful DIY touches and details
that are so personal and functional like the ones shown here.

10:50

As the nation was still recovering from the holiday season,
Australian home affairs minister Peter Dutton announced a proposal
to establish a national public register of child sex offenders,
which would make information about convicted criminals available
online. Describing it as the toughest crackdown on paedophiles in
Australias history, Dutton told reporters on 8 January
that

Tuesday, 15 January

12:39

Immigration detainees at two compounds of Yongah Hill (outside
Perth) have begun a hunger strike (Monday 14 January) in protest
against detention conditions.

On the night of Sunday 13 January, the Yongah Hill protesters
rallied outside their accommodation blocks. On Monday, over 350
people began a hunger strike protest to draw attention to the
conditions, the mistreatment and the abuses in Yongah Hill.

The Yongah Hill protesters have issued a statement (below) with
a list of their concerns, raising many issues regarding long term
detention injustice, visa cancellations, as well as abuse by Serco
guards, and the arbitrary arrest powers and internal punishment
regime that operates in immigration detention.

The routine use of handcuffs that has become part of Border
Forces militarisation of detention is a particular concern. Below
is a video clip of a detainee handcuffed in a Perth hospital after
self-harm incidents.

In both MITA and Yongah Hill, protesters have disappeared into
punishment cells inside the respective detention centres. One
Yongah Hill detainee who staged a roof top protest was taken to the
punishment cells on 9 January, and has not been seen since.

TVs WON IN MITA

Meanwhile, the hunger strike at Melbournes MITA
North detention compound has been suspended after Border Force met
one of the detainees demands, providing TVs for the detainees rooms
(see photo).

However, tensions remain; the TVs are only in one compound and
as yet have no antenna connection. And the detainees are still
waiting for chairs to be brought into the compound and for the
midnight lockdown to be lifted.

And there other outstanding issues about detention conditions to
be addressed. Two people in MITA have attempted suicide (one by
eating a razo...

06:12

During the Indonesian security force operation taking
place in the Nduga region, an article in The Saturday Paper
(December 22) reported that the Indonesian military had employed
airstrikes in West Papua during the operation and may have used the
banned chemical weapon white phosphorus. White phosphorus is banned
by the Geneva Convention for use against civilians. Reports of its
use including images of burn victims have appeared on social
media.

Monday, 14 January

14:33

RISE: Refugees, Survivors and Ex-detainees the first
self-determined advocacy and welfare organisation in Australia run
by Refugees for Refugees calls for a boycott of Australia Day, for
the seventh year in a row.

We Refugees, Ex-detainees and Asylum Seekers from RISE condemn
any group or individual who claims to be pro-refugee but celebrates
Australia Day on the 26th of January 2019. Instead, RISE encourages
all refugees, ex-detainees, asylum seekers and allies to support
First Nations peoples in their actions against Australia Day.

RISE represents over 30 refugee community groups in Australia
and is the first (and one of the few) self-determined, registered,
non-profit refugee organisations in Australia governed and managed
by refugees, asylum seekers and ex-detainees. As refugees, asylum
seekers and ex detainees in Australia, we acknowledge that the land
we seek protection on is the land of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Peoples whose sovereignty was never ceded. Always
was, always will be Aboriginal land.

We believe the systemic abuse of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples is a result of over 200 years of discrimination as
part of the white colonial genocide strategy that continues to this
day and this template is now being used against our own refugee
communities. How can we dismantle the white Australian governments
refugee torture camps built within and outside its colonial borders
without addressing the root cause of this criminal abuse?

RISE fully supports Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
peoples sovereignty and self-determination and stands in solidarity
with them every day in our commitment to fighting for justice on
this land on their terms.

Nationwide actions are being organised by Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Activists. Below are the list of actions
happening around Australia :

I pushed out the blades on the makita
plane and hacked away at all the timber and fill sitting too high
and shattered a couple of weak pieces(mostly thinnish bits with the
grain vertical), and knocked out a few others that had crappy glue
bonds, or were not fully set .

Then I had a go with the big
sander.

Anyway it starts to give an idea of what
it will looked like finished and varnished

Sunday, 13 January

23:33

Its almost fourteen months since Reko Rennies beautiful artwork
at Taylor Square was painted over so the building could be more
attractive to rent out. The other night, wandering along Oxford
Street, I noticed the For Lease sign was still there. A sad start
to the new year, I thought, as I really love public

14:49

In the midst of a warm summer in Sydney, Ive been watching
friends post photographs of snow in Europe. Their photographs have
inspired me to go looking for photographs from the past where Ive
experienced snow myself (which I love) taken in Sweden and
Iceland.

Friday, 11 January

13:40

The hunger strike protest by immigration detainees in MITA North
that began on Tuesday 8 January, is now into its fourth day.

Detainees have also spent their third night outside their rooms,
resisting the nightly midnight lockdown by refusing to enter their
rooms. It is standard operating procedure in the militarised
compound for detainees to be locked in their rooms between midnight
and 7.00am.

Photos of detainees on the floor of MITA
North boycotting the lockdown

At Yongah Hill detention centre, where a similar purpose-built
compound has recently been commissioned, detainees are not locked
down.

The disgust with the purpose built prison-like maximum security
conditions saw detainees request to Border Force officials to
re-open the previous high security Maribyrnong detention centre
that the government declared closed on 1 January.

While Border Force has said they will consider the detainees
demands over food, to end the lockdown, provide chairs and allow
TVs in the detainees rooms, the officials have refused to put
anything in writing.

The detainees are also waiting for action to be taken against
the guards who assaulted two asylum seekers in MITA South on
Tuesday night when one of them asked kitchen staff to pass him
garlic sauce for his evening meal.

The arbitrary abuse of power by the Serco guards has to be
addressed. The ABF refutes the claims of assault but typically
there has been no investigation. An independent human rights audit
of the detention centre is urgently needed. Border Force and Serco
are a law unto themselves.

Guards that abuse their powers must be held accountable,
although there will be no justice until the detention centres are
closed, said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition.

Youth group offers lifeline to those who escaped
military crackdown on rebels by fleeing into a forest

Women and children rest after
fleeing their homes following the deployment of police and military
personnel to Nduga district in Indonesia's Papua province, to hunt
members of the military wing of the Free Papua Movement that
claimed responsibility for killing 20 workers on Dec. 2, 2018.
(Photo is supplied)

1) Not so
clueless about Papua: an academic's call for more research on
Papua

Date 1/9/2019
8:19:07 AM

(MENAFN - The
Conversation) Most people, including me, often perceive that Papua,
Indonesia's eastern most region, is one of the most underdeveloped
and dangerous islands in the archipelago.

This is the
result of a development policy during the New Order regime that
neglected the eastern part of Indonesia for decades and only
focused on building the island of Java , where more than half of
Indonesia's 260 million population live . Such a policy has created
economic inequality between the eastern and the western parts of
Indonesia, and have caused a number of problems . These include
poverty, lack of infrastructures development, poor bureaucratic
performance, corruption, and separation
movements.

...

18:36

I have been away from work for the last two days with some kind
of weird hayfever/summer cold kinda thing. In fact, I felt so shit
I was on the verge of cancelling my planned visit to the doctor to
have some potential skin cancer spots identified. It would be all
too confusing I thought,

10:27

Around 200 detainees in MITA North, the new high security
compound inside the Melbourne Immigration Transit Accommodation
(MITA), have begun a hunger strike in protest against the compounds
prison conditions and guard brutality. The hunger strike began on
Tuesday morning (8 January), and was continuing on Wednesday
night.

Ironically, the hunger strike has exposed the sleight of hand
behind the governments New Years Day announcement that it was
closing Maribyrnong detention centre; it closed but a new high
security detention compound was opened in MITA to replace it.

The new detention centre is worse than Maribyrnong, one of the
hunger strikers told the Refugee Action Coalition. There are no
chairs, no TVs in the rooms, no doors or curtain on the toilets.
Detainees in MITA North are locked in their rooms between midnight
and 7.00am.

There is only one communal TV that is essentially unwatchable
because the only chairs available are metal stools bolted to the
floor at the eating tables.

Confirming the detainees claims of guard brutality in MITA
North, footage also emerged from MITA South of Serco guards
physically abusing detainees in the mess room on Tuesday evening
(see video footage). The detainee was attacked and forcibly removed
from the mess room because he asked if there was sauce he could
have with his meal.

There are no kettles allowed; and the hot water arrangement in
the sink has not been working so there is no tea or coffee
available.

One asylum seeker told the Refugee Action Coalition, I left my
country because people were mistreated just like in here. They are
worse in here than in my country. The guard who you can see in the
video, has punched many people, but he has never been charged.
There is no law in Australia.

The detainees protested against the daily midnight lockdowns on
Tuesday night by refusing to go into their rooms. They intend to
refuse to enter their rooms tonight (Wednesday) as well.

Extra guards have been mobilised on Wednesday, said to be being
paid $40 an hour; money that could buy kettles or chairs.

The conditions in MITA are inhuman. Border Force control has
created militarised detention centres that are worse than prisons,
said Ian Rintoul, spokesperson for the Refugee Action
Coalition.

The should be a human rights inspection of the detention
centres. The government must end the...

04:25

Back in November 2017 there were some 12,823
attached dwellings approved, but by November 2018 the equivalent
figure has collapsed 5,921, an impressive swan dive of 54 per
cent.

On the one hand, as you may recall, the prior year
figure was inflated by a record 6,512 unit approvals in Melbourne,
when half of Footscray was apparently approved for high-rise
apartment living.

On the other hand, this is no time for complacency
as even the apartment projects that are under construction
are increasingly stalling or at risk of failing.

The smoothed monthly trend figures show that house
approvals also declined virtually throughout 2018.

Furthermore, Sydney's unit approvals fell to a
multi-year low in November, all the way back down to levels
commensurate with under-building for the prevailing level of
population growth, sowing the seeds of the next cycle.

Annual unit approvals in Brisbane have fallen by
well over 50 per cent from their peak of three years earlier, and
are now tracking at the lowest level since 2013.

Even in Hobart - which has record job vacancies
and has experienced the tightest rental market imaginable - unit
approvals have been running at close to zero sine the Royal
Commission kicked off.

Wednesday, 09 January

12:37

The UWS Refugee Scholarship program targets students from
refugee backgrounds. Read about two of the recipients, download the
flyer with the information and selection criteria and download the
application form. Applications close 22 February.

08:11

The silly season continues at the lizard Oz, with
Adam doing a classic troll, the reptiles apparently discovering
that the HUN loves to incite neo-Nazis, and the Paris treaty under
threat yet again

The pond rarely bites with Adam, but that Anning
thing?

Was someone suggesting the entire HUN gang should
be sacked for demonising the African Australian community in
Melbourne for the past year or more?

Ah, never mind, it's just a crow eater thing, with
Penberthy gone rogue, and the HUNsters are safe to carry on their
demonising this year who knows, they might get 200 to the next get
together celebrating the HUN's campaign about threatening aliens
...

As for news of Paris, the pond thought same old,
same old, until it looked down the digital page and hang on, hang
on, what's this?

The second eleven must be in charge - is there a
first eleven anywhere in the land, send in some Sydney rain? - or
perhaps they lowered the dose of the kool aid in the office water
cooler, or perhaps all the coffees prepared by the world-class
baristas of Surry Hills are at last having an impact on the
'leets

03:29

The end of the year is generally quieter for real
estate, but stock on market fell more sharply than expected last
month, especially in Sydney (-18 per cent) and Melbourne (-17 per
cent).

Figures elsewhere have also shown that the number
of new listings is at the lowest level in 8
years, suggesting that most owners are simply sitting out the
downturn, even if the total stock on market is higher due to slower
selling times.

Despite this listings are still more than 25 per
cent higher than a year earlier in Melbourne, so there are some
significant challenges there (in spite of the massive population
growth down that way).

00:52

The Weekly Times - TWT - is a campaigning, crusading,
truth-seeking, death defying, Aussie battler-aligned,
one-eyed-Tiger-led news organisation dedicated to Sydney's north
west. This flip book - or digital edition/replica - is the 9th
January 2019 edition of TWT. #TWT090119

'New chapter of persecution': Indonesia cracks
down on West Papua separatists

Helen Davidson @heldavidson

Email Tue 8 Jan 2019 16.03 AEDT

Headquarters trashed and three people
charged with treason for holding a prayer meeting marking groups
fifth anniversary

Indonesian forces have raided and allegedly destroyed
the offices of the West Papuan liberation group, taking over one
site in what lawyers for the group claim is an illegal
occupation.

The raids, which have prompted threats of legal
action, as well as several arrests and three treason charges, come
amid an increased crackdown on the separatist movement and
continuing violence in the decades-long insurgency
against Indonesia.

Three headquarters of the West Papuan National
Committee (KNPB) the domestic arm of the liberation campaign were
raided by Indonesia police and military (TNI) in recent weeks, with
two destroyed and the Timika office taken over for use as a joint
military-police outpost...

DILI, East Timor Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose
Ramos-Horta has urged Indonesias government to hold talks with the
Papuan independence movement to help end a decades-long insurgency
in the countrys easternmost region.

Ramos-Horta, joint recipient of the 1996 Nobel prize
for efforts to bring independence and peace to East Timor, which
suffered a brutal Indonesian occupation for nearly a quarter
century, said he believes the Papua regions future is within
Indonesia, not as a separate state.

Talk to the Papuans, the OPM (Free Papua
Organization), but as brothers of Indonesia, Ramos-Horta said in an
interview last week. The Papuans, they have to feel that the
government, the people in Java, really care about them.

The conflict between Indonesia and the rebels, who
number perhaps just several hundred, flared again last month when
armed separatists in Nduga killed at least 17 people working on a
trans-Papua highway construction site thats a key part of President
Joko Widodos efforts to bring deve...

Sunday, 06 January

08:26

The pond has spent the entire weekend worrying
about the fate of Xians, though the thunderstorm that broke over
Sydney yesterday came a close second

In olden times, the pond might have spent its time
worrying about spending time with witches (uppity women, feminists,
the ones that dare to dance with joy, you know the kind), or
perverted gays or irredeemable atheists, but happily they were
never persecuted - they were just confined to solitary and assured
of an eternity in hellfire for their damnable ways

Before beginning this lengthy meditation, the pond
should perhaps point out that there are other things worth in
reading and doing the pond for example, recently meditated on Peter
Brown's A World Winking with Messages in the NYRB,
but alas, it's
inside the paywall, and so it can't contaminate the reptile
paranoia with this sort of heresy

Rebillard shows that though they might be urged by
their religious leaders, in times of crisis, to stick to
their Christian identity above all others, most early Christians
were usually happy to get along in many roles unconnected with
their religion - as members of families, as neighbours, as fellow
workers, and as good citizens. The writings of the Early Church
Fathers that urged a radical rupture with the pagan world lie heavy
on the shelves of modern libraries. But at the time they
represented the shutting of stable doors long after the horse had
bolted.

This approach is particularly applicable to the
study of early Christian art. In previous generations, the notion
of the "Church of the Catacombs" predominated. Christians were
thought to be frozen into a single, embattled identity. Christian
art was held to reflect this defensive position

But enough of heresies, it's off to the reptile
battlements to person the defences, with the bromancer's
EXCLUSIVE a good enough place
to...

14:30

I got out and saw Ben and Hiske play at
Moshpit last night, for the first time in ages.

One of my New Years resolutions is to
'go out more' (haha), like see some bands and maybe draw some of
them, and also find some venues and galleries to show in.

I would have like to sketch Renee Falez
and Dirk Kruithof etc's punk band, but when I went to shake Ben's
hand after their set I dropped my piece of graphite amongst leads
and foldback speakers, never to be seen again. I didn't have a
spare, have to be better prepared.

I put all the links to my paintings and
drawings of performers, with a heap of images, on my
bands and performance page. It's been a while since I brought
it up to date but I will soon